Living Green – It's Easier Than You Think
Many people try to tell you that green living is hard, that it is un-American, that it’s useless and expensive too. None of those arguments against the green lifestyle are valid. Green living is simply the act of considering the environmental impact that a given action will have and choosing to do things that will either be environmentally neutral or environmentally beneficial. Realistically, these goals are not always possible, but most people want the Earth to be here for future generations and the best way to insure that is to make a lighter personal footprint. A benefit of the “going green” is that it often will save you money and improve your lifestyle too.
A sustainable lifestyle is a “reality-based” decision system. What does that mean? It means that you are aware of where things come from and how they were made. It’s not always easy to find this reality, many people try to hide it from you, because they are aware that if you know the destruction it took to get the product to you, you wouldn’t buy it. If you are buying meat from cows grown on rain forest land that was ripped up for hardwoods and polluted the water, destabilized the soil and destroyed habitat for thousands of animals and indigenous people, is that really worth it being priced at $.25 a pound less? Well, that’s reality. In the internet age there are hundred of resources that can help you on your reality based journey that will make you a green warrior, armed with facts and the power to not buy.
Making the environmentally friendly choices doesn’t have to limit you any any way. You just adjust your thinking about the production, use and ultimate destruction of the products you buy. Buy a great car, but try to coax an extra mile or two per gallon out of it. Make sure your doors and windows are sealed to keep in the heat or air-conditioning. Buy locally grown produce if possible and think about how pesticides and herbicides aren’t good for living things, including you and your family. Can something be recycled and not just thrown away? Most communities have a recycling program of some sort, use it. Living sustainably is not hard, it’s just living with awareness of the impact of your choices.
We all know that the Earth has limited natural resources and people have sped up our usage of those resources for years. Billions of people in Asia, Africa, and South America are aspiring to live better lives with more creature comforts. They have a right to live in the same manner as people in “first world” countries. Sustainable, reality based living requires us to acknowledge this fact and to recognize that each of us has a pollution footprint. This means that we don’t become a bigger part of the problem. Instead we protect our watershed, we reduce our personal use of petro-chemicals, we don’t dump toxins in our streams, we use a low flow showerhead, and if possible buy electricity from “green” sources. This short list of easy ways to protect resources was easy to develop and I am sure that with 15 minutes of thought and discussion you can come up with dozens of ways to reduce your footprint and not change yor comfort style one bit. Just be a responsible citizen of your community, and the world, and you will be helping and that’s what we all need to do.
The next step is to keep gathering information. Join some forums and read some blogs. Check out news sites and think of something you can do every month or so and soon you’ll be living the green lifestyle.
Find all the news and blogs that can help you to Go Green. The Go Green website is updated daily, has tips, tells you about rebates, tax credits, and can be your bestresource when you want to Go Green.
Create A Home Solar Power System To Help Save You Money
There are two reasons to use home solar power. One is to save money and the other is to lower your carbon footprint on our planet. Generating your own electricity involves a large outlay of money at first, but your are rewarded with no power bill.
Solar energy has been in the public eyesight since the 70s. By use of photovoltaic cells, you can generate energy at your own home. The energy is only produced when the sun is shining, so you will need to have a plan for energy on cloudy days and during the nights. Many persons that have solar cells will still connect to the public power lines. Others will have generators that rely on another source for these times. One option is wind power. Another one is to have a generator that depends on fossil fuels for the times when your are unable to generate from the sun.
In order to be totally dependent on the solar cells, you must have a way of storing excess energy that is produced when you are not using it. Most solar energy systems have a bank of batteries that has been set up to store this excess energy. Use of the battery system allows for lights and appliances to be ran during the nights when the sun does not shine. They can also provide limited power on overcast days to supplement what is being produced.
While solar energy is useful in many areas, there are some areas where you will likely need to have a source of back up power. If you depend on electricity for heating or cooling of your home, it is unlikely that you will have the capacity to produce or store enough energy for this use. Many persons use alternate sources of heat or cooling in these cases.
In addition, some users that have a small acreage, plant black locust trees for a self perpetuating wood lot. These trees, once cut will reproduce in a few years from the root stock and the home will never run out of potential firewood.
Cooling can also be a problem. If humidity is not a problem, evaporative coolers may work. In high humidity areas, cool air from a basement can be used to cool a home. In addition, there are some interesting plans that use a cooling tube buried in the back yard to cool outside air for the home.
Within the past few years, solar air conditioning and heat pumps have been introduced. While these units are somewhat expensive, prices will likely drop as they grow in production and in use. Development of these units is going to be a key to growing the use of home solar power.
Learn more about off grid living. Stop by Stephen Johanson’s site where you can find out all about off grid solar system and what it can do for you.
Why You Should Buy Used Moving Boxes
Most people do not know that they can save money by purchasing used moving boxes. When you are moving to a new home or office it can get expensive so saving money is always a plus. When you are buying boxes to hold your belongings is it really important if the boxes are new or used? As long as the boxes are in good shape it should not matter that the boxes are used because you are only going to use them one time before you throw them out.
The companies that have used “moving boxes for sale usually have employees that make sure the boxes are of good quality before you purchase it. These used boxes will be as sturdy as new ones but will not cost you as much. When you are packing your important belongings you just want to be sure they do not get damaged. Many people assume new boxes will protect their belongings better.
As long as you follow the guidelines of packing your things will be just as safe in a used box as they will be in a new one. If you do not pack correctly it will not matter if the box you are using is new or used because your things will get damaged regardless.
When packing your breakable belongings you should be sure to follow the basic rules for packing. Your fragile items should be wrapped in bubble wrap. Bubble wrap can be bought in rolls usually at the same company that you buy your boxes from. Many people use newspaper to wrap their breakable items but bubble wrap is safer.
Your fragile things will get damaged if they are banging together so packing peanuts are a good idea. The company that you buy your used boxes and bubble wrap from will also carry packing peanuts. Most companies that sell these moving supplies will also carry all the items you need to pack with.
It is also important to label your boxes so that it is easier to unpack once you get moved. Moving can be tiring and no one wants to add to the work load. If you have labeled your boxes then you will not spend half of your time searching through boxes to find out what it in them before you start unpacking.
There are some new boxes that have a certain place where you should label them and some people prefer to buy these. Personally I would not pay extra money for this when you can simply label your box with a marker anywhere you want. I simply buy the cheapest used boxes I can find if they are of good quality.
When you save money your whole moving experience can be less stressful. We all worry over enough things when we have to move so why should we add to our stress by paying more for new boxes? Everyone likes to save money so why not make yourself happy by buying used boxes and saving money?
Need boxes for moving? Why not try using recycled boxes, or even used shipping boxes! They’re much cheaper, and much more environmentally friendly too.
